Sen. Al Franken was the keynote speaker at Netroots Nation 2010 last weekend in Las Vegas. Despite the mantra that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas someone recorded his speech and put it on Youtube.
How bad does Al Franken's 312 vote victory over Norm Coleman in 2008 burn in conservative craws? Pretty bad. Some of them just can't seem to let it go. Since they can't do anything to Franken until 2014, the only other target is MN Sec. of State Mark Ritchie who is up for reelection this year.
Minnesota Majority, a right wing group with white supremacist flavorings, got the Republican's communications department, Fox News, to report on a "study" they concocted:
The six-month election recount that turned former "Saturday Night Live" comedian Al Franken into a U.S. senator may have been decided by convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota's Twin Cities.
That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman.
The funny thing is, convicted felons did vote in the 2008 election. He voted for Norm.
I suppose it is a waste of my breathe to remind everyone that three MN courts all ruled unanimously that Franken got the most votes and that the election and recount were fair and square. Even Republicans like Tim Pawlenty and Norm's legal team stated that there was no vote fraud in the election.
Later, Justice Paul Anderson asked [Norm's attorney Joe] Friedberg bluntly whether he was alleging outright criminality by election officials: "Is there any evidence of any fraud, any favoritism, or anything other than the election officials in Minnesota tried to do the best job possible to apply the law?"
"Absolutely not," said Friedberg. "And there's no voter fraud, there's no election fraud."
According to MPR, the Ramsey County Attorney will prosecute 28 cases as a result of this "study." A far cry from the amount needed to invalidate Franken's victory.
Republicans will by trying to use this "study" as a cudgel with which to pummel Ritchie. Therefore, I suggest we all drop a few coins in Ritchie's campaign fund:
Sen. Al Franken sits on the Judiciary Committee and consequently gets to ask President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Elana Kagan questions. Here are his remarks:
Thank you Mr. Chairman. General Kagan, I'm last.
Every Senator who has spoken before me has sworn to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States." And so have I. There are few things that we do that are more important to fulfilling that oath than making sure that the Justices of the United States Supreme Court are brilliant, humane, and just individuals.
But these hearings are also a learning experience for Minnesotans and all Americans watching at home. Before I joined the Senate, I watched at least part of every Supreme Court confirmation hearing that was televised. And I think part of my job here is to continue that learning experience for the American people.
Now, last year, I used my time during these hearings to highlight what I think is one of the most serious threats to our Constitution and to the rights it guarantees the American people: the activism of the Roberts Court.
I noted that for years, conservatives running for the Senate have made it almost an article of faith that they won't vote for activist judges who make law from the bench. And when asked to name a model justice, they would often cite Justice Thomas, who I noted has voted to overturn more federal laws than Justices Stevens and Breyer combined. In recent cycles, they would name Chief Justice Roberts.
(Franken press release email)
Solicitor General Elena Kagan heads to Capitol Hill today to begin her Supreme Court confirmation hearings before the Senate. Minnesota's own Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar are both on the Judiciary Committee, where a party-line vote will likely send her nomination to the full Senate for a vote.
Let the Kabuki theater begin. In recent years, upper-level judicial confirmations have become an easy way for Senators to grandstand on a variety of issues, especially during their opening statements, so the goal for nominees has been to say as little as possible involving specifics, but answering questions as even-handedly as possible. If the opposition party (in this case, the Party of Holding Up Economic Recovery Until We're Back In Power) can't find any chinks in the nominee's rhetorical armor, the nominee generally gets an up-or-down vote and they're on the bench.
With Kagan, the biggest sticking point the GOP has found is her lack of judicial experience; Kagan's somewhat obvious rejoinder here is that she's spent many years arguing before the court and has sterling legal experience to boot. Other than that, the only organized opposition I've seen has been from a somewhat fringey organization called Americans United for Life, which seems intent on pushing back against Kagan's nomination on (what else?) women's health and privacy issues.
But while I haven't seen any other organized efforts to defeat Kagan, that doesn't mean they're not out there -- have you? Anyone pushing hard, or is this going to be the definition of a cakewalk for President Obama's second SCOTUS nominee?
What was most infuriating about the Star Tribune publishing Michael Gerson's attack on Sen. Al Franken? Could it be that a really excellent speech pointing out the truth about our Supreme Court was completely misrepresented by George W. Bush's former speechwriter? Could it be the Strib's limited coverage of politics? Could it be they failed to cover a really excellent speech by Franken? Could it be they've always had it in for Franken?
Let's start with Gerson. He wrote speeches for Bush from 1999 to 2006. He wrote the speeches Bush gave as he lied us into war with Iraq. He wrote the Mission Accomplished speech. Since resigning from the Bush Administration, he's been attacking anyone who points out the truth about conservatives and telling lies to push the far right's agenda. He's in high dudgeon because someone spoke out against an icon of the far right. His first six paragraphs are simply ad hominem attacks on Franken.
What about the Strib editors? This is the same group who did everything they could to get Norm Coleman reelected. The paper's political coverage is so poor and so slanted rightwards that I would be criticizing their editorial page several times a week if I didn't have better things to do with my life. They almost completely rely on DC pundits to provide commentary on national issues.
So the only way that their readers knew Franken gave a speech is because a far right ideologue attacked him for it on their editorial page. They can't hire any more people to help them cover politics because their reader base is disintegrating and their ad revenue is in steady decline. Who is in charge of covering Franken? Apparently nobody. So they rely on hacks like Gerson.
There is two parts of Gerson's attack piece that are true: Al Franken is a Senator from Minnesota and this quote from the speech:
... The "Roberts court has consistently and intentionally protected and promoted the interests of the powerful over those of individual Americans."
Over the past few weeks I've been analyzing Minnesota's congressional delegation, focusing first on the state's house delegation, and then on some specific house members. Now it's time to look at the state's Senators.
You can go here for a more detailed explanation of what the different numbers represent; briefly, the "DW-Nom" number is the legislators DW-Nominate score and the "PVI" number is Minnesota's Partisan Voting Index score. The "PVI v ave" and the "DW-N v ave" represent a comparison between the legislators score and the average score of their party caucus. The "SILVER" score is a composite of these two comparisons and the rank number is the legislators SILVER rank among their party caucus.
This shouldn't be that surprising; Al Franken is one of the most valuable liberals in the Senate, behind only Russ Feingold (-0.757) and Sherrod Brown (-0.375) in SILVER and his DW-Nominate score is to the left of even Keith Ellison, making him the state's most liberal legislator. Amy Klobuchar meanwhile is the only member of Minnesota's congressional delegation who has a SILVER score on the wrong side of 0 for her party.
In a strange coincidence Wisconsin has a similar situation with Russ Feingold being the most liberal member of the Senate, according to SILVER, and Herb Kohl (0.112) ranking 44th, tied with Amy Klobuchar.
Let's take a look at another chart.
Here you can see the DW-Nominate score's of Minnesota's last eight Senators, as well as a graph of the total DW-Nominate scores for the state's two active Senators combined. As you can see, besides the 107th congress when Minnesota had an all liberal Senate delegation, the total DW-Nominate score of the current Klobuchar/Franken alignment is as liberal as Minnesota's had since the Humphrey/Mondale/McCarthy days. And that probably won't change anytime soon, given the current dynamics there's a pretty good chance that this will be our Senate configuration until at least 2014 when Al Franken will be up for re-election.
Jess McIntosh announced today that she will be leaving Sen. Al Franken's office and joining EMILY's List beginning July 16, 2010. While you may not know who Jess is, this is a major development in the Minnesota governor's and MN-06 races. Jess has played a major role in DFL politics for a while now.
She ran the communications at the DFL prior to joining Al Franken's Senate race in March 2007. After Al finally won the Senate race, she took the job of press secretary for him. Now she intends to make yet another impact in MN politics.
EMILY's list Executive Director is Stephanie Shriock. You may (or may not) recall that she was Al's campaign manager. She and Jess know how to win races in Minnesota. They will be working to get the DFL-endorsed candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher elected. They will be working to help Tarryl Clark beat Michele Bachmann.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) spoke to the American Constitution Society's annual convention in Washington, DC last Thursday. He explained why the Supreme Court is so important and how much damage our current court has done. Franken didn't mince words.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) railed against the Supreme Court in a speech to progressive legal scholars Thursday night, declaring that "the Roberts Court has systematically dismantled the legal protections that help ordinary people find justice when wronged by the economically powerful."
Franken in particular decried the way conservative legal scholars have changed the popular perception of what Supreme Court justices do -- and what justice is.
Follow this link to read the entire speech. It's a great speech.
Having talked to Al some and Franni a lot and I can tell you that the Frankens are self-admitted policy wonks and they understand the impact of the SCOTUS.
The above quote wasn't the only gem out of the speech.
"I just got back from the Celebrate Minnesota event at the National Arboretum," Franni Franken began. Franni is Sen. Al Franken's wife. "There were so many Minnesotans there it seemed like we'd emptied the state."
Volunteers from General Mills, Target and "a whole bunch of organizations" helped stage the events. They served Minnesota food like wild rice, cheese curds, walleye and swedish meatballs made from buffalo. She said she really liked the meatballs.
"I found a spot near the door where they were bringing the appetizers in," she continued. "So I could eat some cheese curds. It made me think about the State Fair ... not too long now until it starts, I've got to get warmed up for it!"
I asked about what's the latest from Al.
"He's so very, very, very proud to have voted for health care reform," she replied. "Because checks went out Tuesday for $250 to 63,000 seniors in Minnesota." These checks will cover the "donut hole" in Medicare prescription drug coverage.
"And it's going to get even better for Minnesota seniors," she continued. "Next year drug prices are going to get even better, there's going to be a 50% discount because of health care reform."
In family news, Franni's sister Cathy is retiring after 43 years as a public school teacher. She taught first graders in Maine.
"We're throwing a retirement luncheon for her," she said. "Both my kids will be there. You know Cathy comes from a long line of teachers." Franni's Mom taught school after earning her college degree and daughter Thomasin is an educator/nutrionist in DC.
"Al has been a part of the family for a long time now," she continued. "He helped throw the retirement party for my Mom, too. Hopefully, we'll be around to throw a party for Thomasin."
We also talked about the second woman to come forward with allegations of rape against employees of Halliburton/KBR while in Iraq.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) demanded answers at a hearing into the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico today. My fear is that the Obama Administration and Congress are going to let BP get away with paying for a fraction of the clean-up. However, I'm confident that Franken will do everything in his power to hold BP accountable.
Today, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) participated in a Judiciary Committee hearing regarding the liability of BP in the wake of the catastrophic spill in the Gulf. The hearing, titled "The Risky Business of Big Oil: Have Recent Court Decisions and Liability Caps Encouraged Irresponsible Corporate Behavior?" exposed how federal rules limit liability sharply and do not appear to deter risky activities. The hearing also exposed how the Supreme Court has limited the power of juries and courts to impose sanctions on oil companies above and beyond the cost of compensation to injured persons. Taken together, the current liability rules strongly favor oil companies at the expense of all of those harmed by oil spills.
"This tragedy shows us that our laws aren't doing enough," said Sen. Franken. "We need to improve our laws so that bad actors like BP can't just make a business decision to ignore them. We need laws that better incentivize safety. And we need laws that strictly penalize violations, and help the people harmed by those violations."
Sen. Franken is a co-sponsor of Sen. Robert Menendez's (D-N.J.) bill, the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act, which would raise the cap on BP's liability from $75 million to $10 billion.
(Franken press release email)
Call Sen. Franken, thank him for co-sponsoring this bill and urge him to do everything possible to hold BP criminally and financially liable.
In an effort to make Fridays with Franni a more regular feature than the occasional interview, I emailed Franni with a couple of questions. Franni is the wife of Sen. Al Franken (D-MN).
In particular I was wondering how the fundraiser for Al featuring Conan O'Brien went. As you may recall, Franni said this was her "big break." She had the opportunity to once and for all time show who's the funniest one in the family.
I "killed" with Conan but, alas, he didn't hire me for his new show. Oh well, "Hope Springs Eternal," I'll have to work on some new material. Coco was great and so was the crowd. We all got in on the comedy action, especially a young guy named Kevin who riffed with Conan during the Q & A. And, Gloria Finley and Bob Levine, our hosts, really out did themselves, especially with the food from their restaurant, Loring Kitchen and Bar. So BIG FUN and BIG YUM!.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) keeps impressing me. We all knew he's funny and eloquent, but did you know he's also persuasive? His speech on fixing the credit rating system wasn't just good, it convinced a Republican who was going to vote party line, i.e., against the amendment, to support it:
In an institution as sharply divided these days as the U.S. Senate, lawmakers typically follow the party line and rarely even listen to each other's speeches.
Little Public Awareness of Extent of Online Crime
About 50% of computers have malware on them, and 50% of credit-card numbers are in the wrong hands, according to Joseph Menn, Financial Times reporter and author of "Fatal System Error," a new book about cyber-crime. David Callaway reports.
But Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., had his ears open as Franken, D-Minn., recently described the purpose of his bill about credit raters and how it would work.
Shortly after Franken argued that his provision would have the effect of breaking up the cycle of credit-rating agencies providing inflated ratings to get repeat business, Wicker took to the Senate floor to offer his backing.
"I had not intended to speak tonight but having heard my friend the senator from Minnesota talk about problems with rating agencies I thought I would rise to say that in very many respects the senator from Minnesota is correct," said Wicker. "I hope we can strengthen the bill with regards to rating agencies."
(Market Watch)
Wicker was the first Republican co-sponsor of his credit rating amendment. His amendment passed 64-35.
"I'm just so thrilled for Al," said Franni Franken, Sen. Al Franken's wife. She was as excited as ever to talk but especially proud this week. Al's credit agency reform amendment had passed. "This is so important for everyone. It will help protect people's 401Ks, pensions and nest eggs from another crash like we just had. This is an enormous accomplishment. It's a great bill that got bi-partisan support."
"Everything is going so well for the whole family," she enthused. "Thomasin's work in the DC Schools After School programs is getting noticed." Her daughter, Thomasin is a Coordinator with the after school program and has started a cooking program for the kids as part of the after school program.
"Arne Duncan visited her school to highlight the work they're doing," she said. Here's the link and video of Duncan, Obama's head of the Education Dept, visiting Tyler Elementary:
"And Joe is about to start grad school at MIT," she continued. "He's going to get a masters in Mechanical Aerospace Engineering and an MBA at the same time. Since 8th grade he's wanted to be a CEO of a company that manufactures in the US." It seems to me he's on his way.
As Sen. Franken (D-MN) took a bold stand on healthcare reform, he's doing the same thing on reforming Wall Street. He gave a speech on the Senate floor outlining the case for reform.
Today, as we debate Wall Street reform, we continue that fight to end the stranglehold that big banks have on our economy, and by extension, on the every day life of the American people.
Over the past year and a half, we saw in stark relief the devastating impact that Wall Street can have on our economy when it is left to its own devices. Fueled by unbridled greed, a love of risk-well, of risking other people's money-and an obsession with profit at all costs, banks bought up toxic mortgages by the thousands, driving the subprime lending market in the process. Credit rating agencies, conveniently funded by the same institutions they were rating -- that's a bad idea -- they gave the resulting securities their highest, AAA rating-and the initial ingredients of the financial crisis were born. And incidentally, today, Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times that 93 percent of these AAA-rated subprime mortgage-backed securities have since been downgraded to junk status.
Last Thursday at their state convention, Republicans picked Dan Severson to run against MN Sec of State Mark Ritchie (DFL). What is remarkable is Severson's (and the whole party's) divorce from reality. Severson claims that the sole reason that Al Franken was elected to the US Senate was Mark Ritchie.
Here's an excerpt of the transcript of Severson's speech at a April 15th Tea Party rally in Rochester, MN:
In November of 2008 you cast a vote. And when you went to that poll you believed that that vote counted one vote. But you know, it didn't. When we had the count off that took place 8 months later, a guy got put into office that we didn't elect. His name was Al Franken. And you know what? (boooing)yeah. You know what? When you go to the other 49 states and say that name, they laugh. They go how in the world could you have elected a comedian to the 60th seat in the Senate? And you know what? You didn't elect him. Mark Ritchie elected Al Franken.
Tim Pawlenty said that the recount was fair and square. Every step of the recount was televised live by The Uptake. What happens when reality differs from what Republicans need to believe? They make **** up.
Severson and the Republicans have no factual ground upon which to stand, but the Republican party and reality haven't been getting along very well for a decade now and Severson's claims are sad, cynical and all too predictable.
